In terms of HTML code, the link is series of letters and punctuation put together to form a cohesive unit of computer code instruction. The link, <A HREF=””> is arguably the most important aspect of the web. “<A HREF=””> is the foundation of all searches; it directs the ways users move from page to page, discovering information, or having information presented to them in their browser” (Rice 1). This HTML code provides the fundamental basis for the World Wide Web. It is also a vital part of a relatively new social medium known as the weblog. The weblog is a multi-linking social space that allows for a vastly infinite virtual world of collaboration. The link plays an important role in the construction of the weblog and dynamic interaction of the weblog and its users. When implemented into the classroom, the weblog can be utilized as an effective tool to help students learn and develop critical thinking skills, writing skills, and student reflection and collaboration.

The Evolving Weblog

In the beginning, weblogs were simply a group of selected links put together on a page. Weblogs were born around 1993 with Mosaic’s What’s Newpage as a progenitor of the format (Blood 1-2). Only those who were familiar with HTML code could create them, thus only a limited number existed. Unlike traditional Web pages the blog is not usually created using Web design software such as Dreamweaver, Microsoft Front Page, or Macromedia. Original blogs were created using just HTML code. Today, blogs are created using simple management software systems. The blogger types the content into a Web form or another program dedicated to blogging and presses the submit button. This immediately publishes the material onto the bloggers site for everyone to read (Bartlett 1). With the introduction of free build- your- own weblog tools in 1999, the weblog began to grow at an astonishing rate. Now anyone could create a weblog. Knowing how to type HTML code was not necessary. Today two new blogs are created every second, leaving their total numbers in the millions. In early 2008 blog tracking service Technorati.com listed over 10 million blogs (Richardson 2). The blog has essentially become one of the fastest growing, most used forms of communication. The main reason blogs have become such an important tool is because of the link. Web blogger, Tom Coates states:

It may seem like a trivial piece of functionality now, but it was effectively the device that turned weblogs from an ease-of-publishing phenomenon into a conversational mess of overlapping communities. For the first time it became relatively easy to gesture directly at a highly specific post on someone else's site and talk about it. Discussion emerged. Chat emerged. And - as a result - friendships emerged or became more entrenched. The permalink was the first - and most successful - attempt to build bridges between weblogs.

The link allows a powerful way to connect writer and reader. If viewers read a blog post and then they themselves have a new idea on the topic then they can easily link back to the original blog within their blog thus creating a vast linked community of writers and readers. The tools used to facilitate blogs take this a step further by notifying the blog site manager when someone links back to their site. This automatic notification facilitates the finding of new voices and new teachers to add to the original bloggers network (Richardson 3).

Since 1998 the blog has been a recognized form of communication. Since that time a few conventions have emerged to keep blogs organized and recognizable to old and new users. However, they still keep the door open for weblog creators to use their own unique creativity. Thus this openness to opinions and creativity is one of the highly appealing aspects of the weblog. It is not a constrained construction set to wrap the web population into a tightly wrapped box. Its very design enables continual publishing, editing, reading, learning and response. The conventions that have emerged have done so under a constructional and usage aspect (Blood 9). The very function of the weblog has created its conventions. Blogger Rebecca Blood sites seven such conventions that usually exist on regular standard blog. These include: archives, a copyright notice, email address, perma- links, a search box, comment systems, and a side bar (45-50). These conventions are almost always part of a standard functional weblog. All contribute to the weblogs rich environment of collaboration and communication. Along with the standard conventions there are also some types of blog posts that are most used. Problogger.com lists these 20 types of blog posts: Instructional, Informal, Review, Lists, Interviews, Case Studies, Profiles, Link, ‘Problem’ Posts, Rant, Contrast, Inspirational, Research, Collation, Prediction and Review, Critique, Debate, Hypothetical, Satirical and Memes. This list is a fragment of the number of possibilities that exist. Many bloggers will use all of these types over the course of their blogs existence and many more. These blog types are aids in facilitating ideas through the World Wide Web community.

Weblogs provide a unique and flexible format. Their appeal has projected them into the mainstream population. They enable a population of one to communicate with the majority of the user population. Because of the ease of use and popularity of this medium, some think it has totally changed the limitations of communication. As Will Richardson states, “We are no longer limited to being independent readers or consumers of information…we can be collaborators in creation of large storehouses of information” (2). Blogs have now become a huge social presence for users to communicate their thoughts, feelings, reflections and findings. The blog offers a complex way of contact with the user; it opens windows into a collaborative realm of viewer and subject relations. One of the many strengths of a blog is that it has the ability to contextualize information by juxtaposing the bloggers personal opinion with supporting and oppositional documents. Links are the source of this connection. Webloggers can connect primary source material with contrast material and other interpretations simply by adding a link (Blood 13). Bloggers also hyperlink internally, to pages within the weblog itself, to other blogs, and to sources, and externally, to sites or documents outside of their blog (Luzon 76). These linking abilities drive the connection based backbone of the weblog.

The Linked Weblog

Tim Berners-Lee, developer of the World Wide Web, said “The original thing I wanted to do was make it a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write.” (Richardson 1). Weblog being an intricate important part of the World Wide Web is also place of infinite collaboration. It is such a place because of the power of the link. The link is an intricate part of blogs as well. Coates states, “…It added history to weblogs - before you'd link to a site's front page if you wanted to reference something they were talking about - that link would become worthless within days, but that didn't matter because your own content was equally disposable. The creation of the permalink built-in memory - links that worked and remained consistent over time, conversations that could be archived and retraced later.” Blogs hyperlinks are designed to reach outward into the World Wide Web. They bring together all of the information available outside of the host’s server to the bloggers audience.

Through the hyperlink, readers can decide to pursue bloggers source material in effort to learn even more about the topic presented. They can formulate their own opinions and bring more discussion to the community (Trammel 1-2). This creates a strong collaborative forum for bringing together differing opinions. Links connect information in a way that builds relationships with un-perceivable elements. “Consistently designed, link types help users identify the wide range of textual relationships that are possible in any one hypertext system. Regardless of type, however, what commonly defines a link is its ability to point in at least one direction, from a source node to a target node, and to be actuated by users” (Selber 176).

Not only do they connect information on weblogs but they also serve to connect individuals as well. Rice states “What I tag, what I push to another space and what I visualize, enter into visual and textual relationships with other material, but also with me, with another individual, with a larger group, with an application, with a practice and so on” (24). These textual relationships of the linked web can be compared to the actual classroom setting and also be included as part of the ramifications of a successfully operating linked, blogging classroom. On a proximal level, students and teachers are linked together in the classroom. On this same level, they can be further tied together by the accessibility presented to them when they are connected through the linked web.

Connecting people as a community is just one of the aspects that distinguish the weblog from traditional forms of writing. It is able to establish and connect the community via the link. Blood argues “The weblog community has developed an approach that distinguishes the weblog from traditional media forms and gives it much of its strength. This approach is so ubiquitous that it is invisible to the community at large-except when it is violated. That approach is based on the link because the weblogs link is everything” (18). As Blood states, the essence of the link has become infused in the everyday meanderings of a web user’s life. Because of this its huge importance has become overlooked and is hardly thought of on a day to day basis. Yet it is one of the most important building blocks of this form of communication. Links create a web of transparency around blogs’ inner and outer framework. Links can function on both an internal and external basis. Blogs cannot function without set links to outside material. It cannot be connected to its source material or its users. Like railroad tracks and highways connecting city to city links serve to connect the web to the actual web itself. Internal and external linking ties the blog together with such types as blogroll links, citation links, and comment links. Blogroll links are located in the blog’s sidebar and point to other blogs that the blogger wants to include in their main page. Citation links are located in posts and help link together the post they are located in with others (Luzon 78). Comment links occur when a reader adds a comment to a bloggers post. With trackbacks this allows readers to follow conversations across many blogs (Luzon 77). These links help to tie the internal and external workings of the blog together. Internal and external links connect the blog to the social web. The blog is socially dependent upon the link, without the connection that is produced by these different types of links the weblog would not exist as a social medium.

All types of links are singular in their independent functions but also interconnected because of their function. They support the most important relationship between bloggers, readers, and users. Some types of links that are vital to the function of a weblog are in-post links, sidebar links, blog links, and entry links. By definition, in-post links are those embedded in the body of the individual weblog entries verses blog links that are included as features of the blog site and are present on the front page of the blog (Luzon 78). Sidebar and entry links are named for their positions. Sidebar links appear on the side of the page and entry links occur on the top and sometimes the bottom of the blog page (Luzon 78). At the top of the sidebar bloggers often include some type of self indentification such as their profile, homepage, and their email. These types of links function as a way of self promotion and also a way to connect with the reader. Types of entry links present in the blogs are links to the comment page, links to the permalink URL, trackback links, links to archival categories, links to reactions and links to social Web sites such as Delicious or Digg (Luzon 79).

Links not only connect people and material but they also serve to give blogs their credibility. In comparison, the link within the weblog is like the in-paper citations of traditional forms of writing. “…a Web page can, in theory, actually present its electronic citations directly through the clickable link that brings the environment into the screen space” (Tabbi 142). Bloggers are aware that using these tools will give them a successful blog. They use links to link their primary source material with their projected opinions giving them much better credibility in the eyes of their users. Especially if the blogger is in disagreement with the source material they are referring to, they must present a link to the material in order to build and gain their credibility (Blood 18-19).

It is important for the viewer to know they are reading a knowledgeable and credible piece of writing or they will seek out other blogs. “It is thanks to the links that blogs facilitate the blogger’s integration into the online community, and become tools for hypertext conversations and for hypertextual dissemination of information and construction of knowledge” (Luzon 85). Links also contribute to online relationships between the blogger and the user and with the whole online community. The link strengthens the online community by making it possible to have accessibility to a vast warehouse of knowledge. It also strengthens the bonds between bloggers and viewers. By providing links to primary source material the blogger receives that much more credibility to back up their personal commentary. The link adds value to the blog, blogger, and blog entry along with increasing the complexity of the post. They can also incorporate documents such as graphics, video and sound files to help illustrate and support the bloggers arguments and add to the genre of information taken in by the viewers (Luzon 87).

The Collaboratively Linked Classroom

A Netday survey released in March of 2005 showed that 81% of students in grades seven through twelve had an email account. It also showed 71% had at least one IM screen name and 97% strongly believe technology use is important in education (Richardson 7). These statistics show that students are increasingly engaged in aspects of technology and the social environment. These factors exist as an important part of their daily lives and should therefore be utilized as a basis for learning. Originally, teaching stated as a closed content operation. Teachers felt they “owned” their lectures and guarded them against outside influence. The idea of ownership still exists today but is dissolving with the introduction and influence of the social web. According to Richardson, “Teaching needs to be a conversation not a lecture. It needs to say “these are my ideas, my understanding of the world” (133).

Using the weblog in the classroom helps give this idea of ownership to the students themselves. “Educational hypertext redefines the role of instructors by transferring some of their power and authority to students. This technology has the potential to make the teacher more a coach than a lecturer, and more an older more experienced partner in a collaboration than an authenticated leader” (Landow 123). If the student feels a sense of ownership of the material then they will respond more favorably in discussion and debate. Using the weblog also crosses curriculum to help facilitate the linking of subjects to each other. Students can grasp the interdisciplinary aspects of their subjects and see that they are all related in their very nature. Writing is a primary example of this idea. Skills taught in a writing classroom cross into virtually every other subject. When implemented into the classroom weblogs provide a medium to see the relationships that exist within different subjects. Richardson calls this type of writing “connective writing.” Connective writing is a form that forces those who do it to think more critically, read more carefully, and be clear and concise. It is done for a wider audience thus demands cogency in its construction. It lets the writer link back to sources the ideas expressed (Richardson 28). Weblogs build better writers through their very construction. They are a medium for repetition writing. The more a student writes the better they will become. They also limit the amount of space in which to write and respond. This demands concise clear expression of ideas.

Because weblogs are relatively easy to create they allow the teacher a forum for many classroom operations. Classroom uses of weblogs include: Reflection on teaching experience, a virtual log for teacher training experiences, a forum for writing a description of a specific teaching unit, a place to describe what works in the classroom and what doesn’t, a place to provide teaching tips for other teachers, explain teaching insights and share ideas, post assignments, events, calendars, and homework. In regards to students weblog uses include: a place to share reactions and thoughts to classroom discussions, journal entries, results of surveys, opinions, and ideas (Richardson 38-39). A weblog can also be seen as a powerful course management tool. Many schools invest in content management software which provides a basis for teachers to easily implement a weblog into their classroom. As a course management tool a weblog can provide the teacher with a place to publish, course curriculum, syllabus, class rules, homework, assignments, rubrics, handouts and presentations (Richardson 21). These are just a few of the many uses of a classroom weblog. The weblog can be adapted to fit any teaching style or curriculum. It is an example of a technology based Swiss army knife adaptable to any function or creative inspiration.

Web 2.0 tools and social software in general will have a genuinely transformational effect on technology in education. (Bryant 9). The classroom is based on connectivity. The connective power of the facilitating teacher to reach the students through presentation of ideas is the fundamental building block for classroom learning. This can be enhanced to an even more powerful concept with the use of the weblog. The blog can increase the collaborative process of the classroom from just teacher –to- student and transform it into a peer- to- peer collaboration (Trammel 61). If this peer to peer interaction is further established through the weblog it can create a new more effective type of classroom. In this classroom students will be able to construct new and different meanings through collaboration with other students. Ideas that weren’t thought of before can now be expressed through the opportunity of weblog communication. It is effective in linking ideas discussed within the classroom and continuing the conversation outside after class is over (Carlson 33). With no time boundaries to squelch sharing of new ideas, students are free to further engage in their discussions. “The Internet has removed what should be the chief barriers to large-scale collaborative efforts: time and distance. We can communicate instantly with researchers in practically any field. We can share documents as fast as we can write them” (Fanderclai 313). Collaboration can be conducted without the need for a stage. Truly innovative ideas can be shared and linked together without constraint. Collaboration holds levels in which participators can grow in the process.

Three levels of collaboration identified by the Amherst Wilder Foundation’s Collaboration Handbook are cooperation, coordination and true collaboration (Hofman 1). These operations can be compared to the idea of the link, in that they are connected through initial actions based upon reactions. When ideas are linked they create the basis for these processes. Cooperation can be accomplished by individual students providing feedback or help for someone else. This supports individual learning goals. Two types of cooperation are asynchronous cooperation and synchronous cooperation. Asynchronous cooperation can be found in the task of students posting, providing feedback, and cooperating to assist others in the weblogs discussion environment ( Hofman 1). Synchronous is then the changing of initial ideas based upon feedback provided by the asynchronous cooperation. The coordination process when students begin to work together as a whole unit rather than individuals (Hofman 2). This process begins to mirror the action of linking single ideas in weblog sites together to create a whole network of interconnected information. The true collaborative process is then established through these processes. The power to simply talk to each other gives the student the opportunity to comment, give feedback, and create a dialogue to further enhance what they learned from the original classroom model environment (Perry 11). If integrated as part of the classroom curriculum the weblog can allow for more personal expression and feedback through its natural collaborative setting. Blogs can become sources of information of classroom topics and the site where classroom interaction takes place (Myers 9).

In support of this process, the link provides the missing element within the socially connected classroom. The link is responsible to making it possible to connect the students to the information presented in the blog. As the students are connected with each other the link provides the connection to the material. It provides the connection to the infinite number to ideas and possibilities that enable the social learning process. It is the link that provides the bridge between subject and user and enables the student to make replies, collect feedback, view ideas, and link back to vital research information (Blasi 252). Because of the link these weblog actions help to support the whole collaboration process. All elements are interconnected to each other and help to support the success of the other. The weblog helps break down the walls of the classroom and provides the link to the outside world wide web of information. “One of the great strengths of hypertext lies in its capacity to use linking to model the kinds of connections that experts in a particular field make. By exploring such links, students benefit from the experience of experts in a field without being confined to them…” (Landow 127).

Students are able to gain understanding and knowledge from ‘other experts’ through weblogs. They can check for understanding of concepts presented, compare resources with others in and out of the blog network, and share drafts, peer critique and interact with colleagues (Ismail 170). This creates a network of knowledge and support for completion of writing assignments. In this type of environment builds powerful learning networks that link one voice to the next. Students can learn from hearing constructive criticism from their peers. Participation in discussions and debates turns into a form of fun interaction rather than a struggle by the teacher to illicit comments. Writing on a weblog gives students a sense of “audience” thus making them excited about sharing (Richardson 40). The student is not just writing to please the teacher. They are now writing for a whole audience. This gives them a bigger ownership over what they write and will write. Blogs force the writer to make every word count and be as clear as possible to convey their message to a very unpredictable audience (Gregg 6). Blogs motivates students to become engaged in writing, reading, and to really evaluate their level of writing. They are aware that their work will be available for an infinite number of people to read therefore they will submit a higher quality of work (Richardson 40). Leaving peer reviews and comments also allows the student to further enhance critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking relies upon relating many things to one another. Since the essence of hypertext lies in its making connections, it provides an efficient means of accustoming students to making connections among materials they encounter. A major component of critical thinking consists in the habit of seeking the way various causes impinge upon a single phenomenon or event and then evaluating their relative importance, and hypertext encourages this habit (Landow 126).

The student has to make the connections between what the writer posts and what they take away as the meaning. “The effort required to transform the feeling of “this is interesting” into a succinct description of why it is worth a read is the difference between knowing what you think and why you think it.” (Blood 30-31) As critical thinkers students must take away this very idea. They must utilize this difference in knowing what you think and why you think it to provide the essential commentary to their peers writing. They must also recognize it within their own work. To make their writing the best it can be this acknowledgment must be made.

To provide the constructive criticism needed gives them the opportunity to walk in the teacher’s shoes. Through this process the blog then becomes a pure student driven application. This creates a true collaborative medium for student to student interaction. The teacher can participate as an observer. They can oversee the entire operation from an outside perspective guiding the conversation if needed. If the teacher sees something related to the blog they can send a link to the information. Here again is the power of the link. The link is the way reading becomes an active undertaking.

Differing opinions of the weblogs utility in the classroom surface primarily in the actual technical aspects of the writing process. Educators against the use of internet social media in the classroom, argue that it is a hindrance to the student’s basic technical writing abilities. However many studies have shown the actual reverse of this type of argument. Learning specialists Fernette and Brock Eide’s research study shows blogging has a great deal of positive potential impact upon students (Richardson 20). Their study has found that blogging promotes critical and analytical thinking, is a powerful promoter of creativity, promotes analogical thinking, is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information, and combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction (Richardson 20).

Despite all the positives shown from these studies, some think that the internet is destroying the way kids read, think and write. They say traditional writing skills are being lost (Coulter 1). Jacquie Ream author of KISS: Keep It Short and Simple says “We have a whole generation being raised without communication skills” (Coulter 1). While communication skills might be disputed, it is hard to challenge the abundance of successful studies that have shown increasing positive effects when technology is used as an accompaniment to traditional classroom study. The weblog in particular is a proven tool to help promote the kinds of thinking skills that students need to learn. Cheryl Ball professor of New Media Studies at Illinois State University says “It makes writing fun again and encourages critical thinking” (Coulter 1).

In terms of links additional pros and cons can be cast in the way they are used to support source material. “Links pose certain challenges to students in making that assessment, some of which stem form the Web’s wide array or material; one is likely to find sites linked to other sites that have different purposes and different degrees of reliability” (Sorapure et al. 334). Generally, the addition of links to a site can cast a certain additional respect. However, just because a site has links does not mean it is a fully respectable source for students to use.

In general, determining the value of a linked site is difficult without actually checking that site… Students must also resist simplistically thinking that the number of links on a web site correlates with the quality of the site. Obviously the lack of links could signal that the source is not situated within its own particular research context… On the other hand a site could suffer from too many links…an overuse of links could suggest an author’s inability to discriminate” (Sorapure et al. 343-344).

As with blogs, research represented with links to its important sources is a good indicator of a respectable source. However, students and teachers still need to carefully check the value of any web source. This additional task must not deter from the use of web sources. The use of internet, weblog, and other web sources for research and classroom curriculum is a great asset to all web users.

Because of the link, one of the most powerful things a weblog does for the classroom is increase the access and exposure the student has to an endless variety of information. Weblog posts are natural epicenters for linked information. Because information is linked together through this process it allows new open doors for increase access to information. A wonderful positive effect perhaps because the link is an element that is often overlooked because of its constant role in a weblog. Its presence is so important yet usually unrecognized because it’s always there to help connect the many users of the web.